Production environments, including multi-stage manufacturing environments, are often automated using computer-controlled equipment. Such computer-controlled equipment can be used to perform one or more steps in a manufacturing process for one or more products. Commonly, pieces of manufacturing equipment such as presses, drills, and lathes, among others, can be used by multiple operators or users in the manufacture of more than one product. These pieces of equipment can often perform multiple sub-steps under the control of a computer and can also be included as part of a complete industrial control system.
A human operator or controller can typically access functions of a computer running an industrial automation or control system through the use of a human-machine interface (HMI). An HMI, or simply a user interface (UI), can be important to the successful operation and maintenance of industrial automation devices such as control systems and associated equipment or machinery. User interfaces generally provide the essential communication link between operators and automation devices. This link allows operators to, among other things, setup and control devices and receive feedback by monitoring device status and health during operation. Without such user interfaces, achieving high-level industrial automation would be difficult, if not impossible.
One desirable property of an HMI is ease of use. A well-designed HMI can make operation of complex machinery easier and more intuitive. Graphical HMIs are commonly favored to present data to users in an easily understandable manner. However, such graphical systems can require great amounts of processing resources simply to create the graphical components of the HMI. Use of these processing resources for graphics-related tasks prevents use of these relatively scarce processing resources for tasks directly related to monitoring and control of machinery and equipment. Current HMIs fail to provide computationally efficient ways to present monitoring and control information to users in a graphical format.